Where it is desired to pack a number of items or articles in cartons, particularly where the number is considerable and the items or articles are small and are susceptible to fracture or crushing and are not readily individually handled, at present at least some of the cartonning operations involve manual manipulation. For instance, while the cartons to be employed are set up from prepared, flat folded blanks that have portions of the bottom flaps glued so that they can be set up by telescoping the flat blanks endwise to produce a rectangular carton having a closed bottom and open top with upstanding top closure flaps, there is at present no simple means available for automatically setting up the cartons and feeding them into a system in synchronism with the carton loading cycle of the cartonning operation and this step is normally done manually. Also to prevent breakage or crushing of the items or articles that have been discharged in a random pile into the carton during the carton top closing operation, manual redistribution or shake down is usually required unless the carton is oversized, because the initial pile will project above the closed carton top level and unless redistribution occurs the closing of the top flaps will cause damage to the contents and proper closure may not be attained. If, on the other hand, the carton is oversized so that such redistribution is not required, the items instead of being snugly packed are loose in the carton and are subject to breakage or crushing due to their shifting an any subsequent rough handling of the carton.
It is the object of the invention to overcome the above problems and provide a relatively simple cartonning apparatus which can be totally synchronized to the carton filling cycle at the carton loading station which is dependent upon the delivery of the items or articles for cartonning and will eliminate all manual manipulation from the cartonning operation.